One general purpose of the study is to examine the antecedents and consequences of fairness in family work (i.e., housework) judgments across the transition to parenthood. In particular, the aim is to investigate how married couples make judgments about fairness in the division of housework at approximately 3 months before and 6 and 12 months after the birth of a first child and, at these three times, to these judgments to various psychological outcomes such as marital quality (i.e., conflict, satisfaction) and psychological functioning (i.e., depression, anxiety, and hostility). With respect to antecedents, it is expected that the use of various possible distributive justice norms (e.g., mutual responsiveness to needs, equity, equality) and the use of various possible comparison persons (e.g., spouse, same-gender friends, parent) will be linked to fairness judgments in distinct ways. Further, various types of stress and various job-related variables are expected to influence whether the spouse is selected as a primary comparison referent. Specifically, it is hypothesized for both women and men: a) that both perceived stress and salient job-related variables (e.g., the wife's salary or percent contribution to family income, the wife's perceived job importance) will be positively related to the frequency of comparison with spouse in terms of dividing the housework; b) that comparison with spouse (but not with same-gender others) and the use of "account- taking" fairness norms such as equity or equality will predict less perceived fairness in the distribution of stereotypically "female" household tasks; and c) that less perceived fairness will be linked with greater marital conflict and marital dissatisfaction for women and men as well as with more depression for women. These questions have been examined cross-sectionally for a small subsample (N=82) of the total number of married couples to be recruited (N=180) before the birth of their first child at Time 1 (see Figure 1). More importantly, these hypotheses will be tested again, prospectively, at 6 months (Time 2) and 12 months (Time 3) postpartum for the total sample. This transition to parenthood will undoubtedly involve shifts in couple members' inputs into and outcomes from the marital relationship. In addition, it is expected that the same processes will operate for a participating comparison sample of married couples (N=70) who have no children, but plan to have children in the future.